Saturday, April 29, 2017

I got up once at 4am but otherwise slept through the night, finally waking/getting up at 7:30am.

It’s another clear, sunny day.

Late last night Teresa gave me some good news.  It appears the US embassy called MT last night and informed her that her Social Security should be in her Bancolombia account next week.  Yay!  Now I don’t have to worry about that anymore.  And MT said she will help Laura pay for college.  Yay, again!

I did another Speed Test and received 2.24Mbps download and 2.12 Mbps upload – at 8am on a Saturday morning.

I left the apt just before 9am, did 15 of 18 exercises at the gym and was back at the apt just after 11am.

I made the mistake of buying tea bags that make gallon sized containers of tea.  So either I have to find a pitcher or bottle of that size or I have to dilute the tea by not steeping it so long.  As I turns out the girl in the gym with all the tattoos carries around a bottle of water that is at least a gallon in size.  I guess I could ask her where she bought it but first I’ll probably try the dilution method.

I watched the NFL Draft final rounds #4-#6 but had on-again off-again wifi buffering problems.

I forgot to mentions that yesterday Maria, Jose’s wife, taught Teresa how to make something.  It wasn’t exactly crocheting but it was some other art/hobby.  Yesterday Teresa went out and bought some supplies and started a project of her own.  MT came over and in 3 hours she crocheted a piece of material the size of a small pillow.

In Chess Magnet School I was promoted to Earl.

Again I reminded Teresa that her mother has to go to the gym and ask them to cancel her membership, otherwise they are going to take (or try to take) money out of Laura’s account for her come May 10^th.

The Colombian Peso closed for the week at 2,937 to the US Dollar.

I watched Season 6, Episodes 1&2 of The Walking Dead on Netflix.

T-shirt of the day: Just because I’m awake doesn’t mean I want to do things.

Friday, April 28, 2017

Today’s a clear sunny day.

Among new US movie releases there isn’t anything I want to see.  Locally, there isn’t anything I want to see.

I left the apt at 8:35, walked downtown where I bought a Q’hubo newspaper for Chuck, then stopped at La Abuela Isabel where I bought a cake for the 4 of us to share.

I got back just in time for the Today show, I watched the first 30 minutes then Teresa and I left the apt at 9:35.

We arrived at Jose’s house right at 10am.  Jose and I played a game of chess which I won in the endgame when he blundered.  In the second game I blundered in the endgame and he won.

Jose’s wife Maria made us a delicious lunch.

We left there about 3pm, quickly caught a taxi and through heavy traffic we got back to the apt just before 4pm.

Back at the apt I found we didn’t have any wifi.  I reset the router and after that it worked intermittently. 

The Bears traded down in the 2^nd round in order to accumulate more picks and then chose TE Adam Shaheen from Ashland.

In Chess Magnet School I was promoted to Duke.

T-shirt of the day: If you don’t want a sarcastic answer don’t ask a stupid question.

Thursday, April 27, 2017

The day is finally here, the 1^st day of the 2017 NFL Draft.  Tonight we have the 1^st round, tomorrow night rounds 2 & 3 and Saturday rounds 4-7.  The first 3 picks go to the Cleveland Browns, San Francisco 49ers and Chicago Bears.  All 3 teams need a franchise quarterback but this isn’t the strongest year for quarterbacks so it might not make sense to pick one so high in the draft, or perhaps it would just be better to wait until next year.  On the other hand, when the 2^nd round comes around the top QBs could be gone.  The Bears signed Mike Glennon from the Eagles but that could just be a stopgap measure until next year’s draft.

Per the experts Texas A&M’s defensive end Myles Garrett is the best player in the draft so the Browns might be crazy not to take him with the first pick, especially since they have another 1^st round pick – the 12^th where they could take a QB.  The second pick in the draft goes to the 49ers and most experts expect them to select Stanford’s defensive end Solomon Thomas.  The Bears, with the 3^rd pick, are expected to choose LSU safety Jamal Adams.  

However, any team could trade down, if another team wants to trade up, in order to acquire more picks.  Anyway, it should be interesting and it all begins tonight at 7pm Chicago time.

I was looking at the Direct TV directory and it appears the NFL draft will be broadcast tonight on ESPN 3.  I wonder if it will be in English or Spanish.

The day started out a little overcast but it soon cleared up.

We left the apt at 8:30, and at euro in Mayorista we bought $135 worth of groceries.  We were back at the apt by 10:30.

Teresa told me she would be busy later because she has to make lunch, have her nails done, and go to the gym.  I told her if it would help I could have lunch in El Poblado.

I left the apt at 11:30 and got off the bus outside Barbacoa restaurant.  I looked at their menu and it was almost all burgers so I went next door to Parmessano.  I had their mixed lasagna which is with ground beef and chicken.  It was very tasty and included some hot bread slices with olive oil and a salad.  I also had a coconut lemonade for a total of 33,212 (about $12).

Across the street I took out some cash from a Citibank ATM.  Walking down towards MBE I felt the need to pee.  I stopped in the new Starbucks at One Plaza but the restroom door was locked.  The (whatever the fancy word is for the person who makes drinks; barrister?) told me that someone was cleaning it and should be out in 5 minutes.  I waited 5 minutes then went next door but I didn’t see a bathroom in Dunkin Donuts.  I went into the One Plaza office building and asked a security lady for the restroom.  She told me it’s on the first floor.  (And here I thought I was on the first floor. Lol.)  I got in the elevator and the floors were marked top-to-bottom “2, L, S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6”.  I guessed I was on “L” for “lobby” so I pressed “2” but the elevator didn’t move.  I pressed “S1” and it went down one level where I soon found the restroom.  I guess there are 6 sub-floors which probably include parking.

At MBE they gave me 3 medium-sized boxes – a little too big for me to carry.  I shook the smallest box and the rattling confirmed my suspicions so I opened it and found the soap container I had ordered, and Amazon had sent separately, so I put it in my tech bag.  I paid 37,400 (about $13) extra for the shipping for the 3 boxes.  I also paid 45,000 (about $15) for May’s rental charge.

I quickly caught an Envigado bus and struggled to get on with my packages and pay the 2,000 pesos fare as the bus started moving right away.  I got off at Oviedo mall and at Cava de Quesos I saw an American Bagel sign on a window; I thought they had taken it down.  Inside I didn’t see any bagels – figures.

Outside I waited 5 minutes for a Sabaneta bus and had to drop my packages on the front seat (empty, luckily) to fish out another 100 pesos for the bus driver.

I got off a block from my street and walked the last few blocks back to the apt.

I opened the first box and it contained my Lipton iced tea bags – the one I had ordered just before I noticed they sell them here in Exito.  The second box contained 2 additional soap containers (can’t they count?), a letter puzzle book for Laura, a bottle of Tums and my new sleeping mask.

I was surprised I didn’t have any new emails until Laura came home and told me our internet is out again.  I sure hope the NFL draft tonight on Direct TV is in English!

Our internet connection seems to be intermittent and not very strong at that.

In the first round of the 2017 NFL Draft the Chicago Bears select … Mitch Trubisky, QB, North Carolina.  They traded up one spot with San Francisco to make this selection.  I’m still waiting to find out what they gave up to make that earlier selection?  Wow! The Bears gave up picks 67, 111 and a third-rounder next year to move up one spot and draft Trubisky No. 2 overall in the 49ers’ spot.

I don’t think SF was really interested in him, I’m pretty sure they were outbidding another team – Cleveland? – for the rights to draft him.

I watched the first hour of the draft on Direct TV with all the analysis done in Spanish.  After that I watched it all on my Slingbox.

T-shirt of the day: I hate it when the voices in my head go silent…I never know what they are planning.

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

I slept well only waking up once at 5am finally waking/getting up at 8am.

1 more day!

Another overcast day.

I only did 17 of the 18 exercises at the gym because I had to leave at 11:30.  Today, the man who doesn’t speak English, came in and tapped me on the shoulder and said very clearly “good morning”.  Maybe he’s going to study a little.  Seeing a wound on his leg I asked Andres if he had an accident.  He said he was coming home from a party and fell asleep on his motorcycle and fell, injuring his leg.  I told Jose another joke so I’m sure he’ll be expecting a new one everyday now.

I did an Internet speed test using Speedtest.net and I only got 3.87 Mbps download and 2.17 Mbps upload.  (In comparison to test results of 5.13 & 1.06 that I got, respectively, on June 17, 2016.)   I wonder if the upgrade was supposed to be immediate?

The MBE website still shows I have 3 packages at their office in Medellin.  I wonder why they haven’t sent me the usual emails?

I understand we’re going to Euro in Mayorista tomorrow morning for a food run and in the afternoon I’ll go to MBE to pick up my packages.

I finally finished lesson 11 in Rosetta Stone.

I watched The Shawshank Redemption on Youtube; my favorite movie and #1 on imdb.com.

T-shirt of the day: If I had a dollar $$$ for every time $$ I was distracted … I wish I had some ice cream.

2017 Update: Medellin Furnished Apartments Rental Costs - Medellin Living

2017 Update: Medellín Furnished Apartments Rental Costs

APRIL 26, 2017 BY JEFF13 COMMENTS

To more accurately answer the question about what the current Medellín furnished apartments rental costs are, with the help of my Colombian wife, we recently surveyed the rental costs of 350 available furnished apartments in several neighborhoods in Medellín.

We only looked in the five most popular neighborhoods for expats living in Medellín: El Poblado, Envigado, Laureles-Estadio, Sabaneta and Belén.

We also only included apartments that have hot water and Wifi available. Several hundred apartments in Medellín are listed on the Airbnb site. And we did not include apartments on the Airbnb site in our survey if they did not have positive ratings, as they are riskier to rent.

Without a surprise, most of the furnished apartments we found in Medellín are located in El Poblado – 70 percent of the furnished apartments we surveyed this year were found in El Poblado.

There are three main websites to find furnished apartment rentals in Medellín

• Airbnb – has several hundred furnished apartments in Medellín listed, but many of these have no ratings.
• Casacol – has >100 furnished apartments in Medellín listed.
• Apartment International – has many apartments listed.

Some furnished apartments are listed on one of the rental company websites as well as the Airbnb site. If an apartment is listed on more than one website we only included it once in our survey.

We also looked for furnished apartments on some Spanish language websites that cater to Colombians for our survey. However, be careful of apartments on Spanish language sites, some have not that many furnishings, some do not have hot water and some do not have Wifi.

Most furnished apartment rentals in Medellín are priced in U.S. dollars. For apartment rentals priced in pesos we used the exchange rate of 2,903 pesos to the U.S. dollar.

Some Initial Survey Findings

Pricing for some furnished apartments in Medellín increases during the popular times of the year such as Christmas, New Years and Feria de las Flores (the Medellín flower festival). We used the low season rental prices in our survey.

Most Medellín furnished apartments rentals we surveyed in the city have a minimum rental period of 1-3 days. But some Medellín furnished apartments we looked at have a minimum rental period of 30 days (less than 10 percent of the apartments surveyed).

For apartments with both daily and monthly rates, the longer-term monthly rate usually reflects a discount to the daily rate. Over 80 percent of surveyed apartments offer a discount for monthly rates compared to daily rates.  The discounts for the monthly rate ranged from 3.3 up to 60 percent compared to the daily rate.

Most furnished apartment rentals in Medellín require a security deposit; 70 percent of the apartments we surveyed required a security deposit. The security deposit charges ranged from $98 to $1,030 and averaged $236.

Many furnished apartment rentals also require a cleaning fee; 78 percent of the apartments we surveyed had a cleaning fee listed. The cleaning fee ranged from $6 to $129 and averaged $26.

We didn’t include security deposits or cleaning fees in our below rental cost survey results.

El Poblado Furnished Apartments

El Poblado is the most popular neighborhood for foreigners living in or visiting Medellín. It is the most upscale neighborhood in the city and is where the most hotels and furnished apartments catering to foreigners are located.

In my first few visits to Medellín in 2007 to 2009, I rented furnished apartments in El Poblado.

El Poblado is primarily an Estrato 6 neighborhood with 74 percent of the households rated at Estrato 6. It is also where the most expensive real estate and most expensive apartment rentals in the city are located.

El Poblado survey of 246 furnished apartment rentals results:

• 132 apartments were 1-bedroom or studios with rents ranging from $29 to $132 per day. The monthly rates ranged from $871 to $3,770 per month.
• 56 apartments were 2-bedroom apartments with rents ranging from $36 to $252 per day. The monthly rates ranged from $851 to $5,700 per month.
• 38 apartments were 3-bedroom apartments with rents ranging from $47 to $278 per day. The monthly rates ranged from $980 to $6,670 per month.
• 20 apartments were 4-bedroom to 8-bedroom apartments with rents ranging from $195 to $839 per day. The monthly rates ranged from $1,627 to $21,000 per month.

Average Furnished Apartment Rental Costs in El Poblado

Laureles-Estadio Furnished Apartments

Laureles-Estadio is likely the second most popular neighborhood for foreigners visiting Medellín. It is primarily a residential neighborhood with many areas with tree-lined streets and fewer high-rise apartments than are found in El Poblado.

Laureles-Estadio is primarily an Estrato 4/5 neighborhood with 99 percent of the households rated at Estrato 4 or 5.

Laureles-Estadio survey of 46 furnished apartment rentals results:

• 32 apartments were 1-bedroom or studios with rents ranging from $14 to $61 per day. The monthly rates ranged from $337 to $1,800 per month.
• Seven apartments were 2-bedroom apartments with rents ranging from $34 to $63 per day. The monthly rates ranged from $750 to $1,349 per month.
• Seven apartments were 3-bedroom apartments with rents ranging from $44 to $91 per day. The monthly rates ranged from $947 to $1,191 per month.

Average Furnished Apartment Rental Costs in Laureles-Estadio

Furnished Apartment Costs in Other Neighborhoods

Our survey also found furnished apartments in Envigado, Sabaneta and Belén with a summary of these results as follows:

Envigado is another popular neighborhood for foreigners visting and living in Medellín. It is less commercial than El Poblado and like Laureles-Estadio has many areas with tree-lined streets and fewer high-rise apartments than are found in El Poblado.

Envigado survey of 25 furnished apartment rentals results:

• Four apartments were 1-bedroom or studios with rents ranging from $15 to $76 per day. The monthly rates ranged from $328 to $2,294 per month.
• 10 apartments were 2-bedroom apartments with rents ranging from $26 to $100 per day. The monthly rates ranged from $644 to $1,979 per month
• Eight apartments were 3-bedroom apartments with rents ranging from $35 to $89 per day. The monthly rates ranged from $627 to $2,127 per month.
• Three apartments were 4-bedroom to 6-bedroom with daily rates of $40 and $139 and monthly rates of $1,075 and $5,675 per month.

Sabaneta is a separately administered municipality within the Medellín metro area that is rapidly becoming popular with expats.  It is located directly south of Envigado. Sabaneta is much smaller than El Poblado with a population of about  55,000.  I currently live in Sabaneta.

Sabaneta is primarily a residential community. In Sabaneta, you will find several neighborhoods similar to El Poblado with high-rise apartment buildings but they tend to be a bit more spread out. Also in Sabaneta you can find some quiet streets lined with one-story, two-story and three-story attached homes.

Sabaneta survey of 16 furnished apartment rentals results:

• Three apartments were 1-bedroom or studios with rents ranging from $29 to $49 per day. The monthly rates ranged from $707 to $1,024 per month.
• Seven apartments were 2-bedroom apartments with rents ranging from $35 to $43 per day. The monthly rates ranged from $529 to $1,015 per month.
• Six apartments were 3-bedroom apartments with rents ranging from $33 to $110 per day. The monthly rates ranged from $789 to $2,838 per month

Belén is a neighborhood that is increasing in popularity for foreigners living in Medellín. Belén is where I lived for about four years in three different barrios (Fatima, Loma de Los Bernal and Los Alpes).  I rented a furnished apartment in Belén for three months as a trial of living in Medellín in 2010.

Belén is more of a working-class community with 98 percent of housing in Estrado 2 to 5 and only 2 percent in Estrato 1.

Belén survey of 17 furnished apartment rentals results:

• Eight of the apartments were a 1-bedroom with rents ranging from $18 to $49 per day.  The monthly rates ranged from $483 to $1,176 per month.
• Five apartments were 2-bedroom apartments with rents ranging from $24 to $55 per day. The monthly rates ranged from $691 to $1,315 per month.
• Four apartments were 3-bedroom apartments with rents ranging from $35 to $58 per day. The monthly rates ranged from $836 to $1,391 per month.

Apartment buildings in El Poblado near Santafé mall

The Bottom Line

There is a wide range of Medellín furnished apartments available for rent ranging from economical to luxury. El Poblado is where most of the furnished apartments in Medellín are available but El Poblado is also where the most expensive real estate in the city is found.

Medellín furnished apartments are more expensive to rent on average in El Poblado than in the other areas of Medellín. You can save on a furnished apartment rental in an area outside of El Poblado, such as Laureles-Estadio, Envigado, Sabaneta or Belén.

There are now more Medellín furnished apartments available outside of El Poblado compared to our surveys in previous years.  As a result, you now have more choices available.

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

2 more days!

Despite getting up twice during the night I felt I slept well waking/getting up at 7:30am.

It’s a very overcast day looking like it might rain later.

Still no wifi.

Uh-oh, I checked my notes and it appears that El Viejo y El Pancake is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays so I guess we’ll be going somewhere else for lunch today.

I left the apt at 9:15 and immediately caught a bus.  I only had to wait a minute for a metro train and again caught a metro train at San Antonio without any wait.  I arrived at Liga de Ajedrez at 10am.

We played 2 games winning one and losing one.  We had some off and on rain while we were playing.  I gave him the bad news that El Viejo y El Pancake is closed on Tuesdays.  We walked out to 50^th street where we caught a taxi to Laureles.  The driver dropped us off at Alicate restaurant behind McDonald’s on Avenida Nutibara.  I thought they would have lasagna on their menu but I guess their lunchtime menu is more limited.  I had chicken breast Italiano and Jose had beef Italiano.  Our plates came with cole slaw and French fries.  I had a Te Hatsu and he had a soda.  The total came to 60,000 pesos or about $11 apiece.

We walked to Mall Laureles where we played 2 more games both of which I won.  We walked to Avenida 80 where we said goodbye and I caught a Circular Sur 302 bus.  Traffic was slow and the bus didn’t move very fast and with all the people it got a little warm inside.  At Aguacatala station I waited about 15 minutes for a train but at least it wasn’t overly crowded.  At Envigado Station I waited on the Metro bus for about 10 minutes for it to fill up.

I got back to the apt at 7pm and found we have our wifi/internet connection back.  I understood the Une guy was here and of course he told Teresa we could get wifi, internet, and a landline phone for less than we pay for Direct TV.  I told her no thanks.  I have over 100 emails to catch up on.

We got some rain in the evening and overnight.

I watched a special about Albert Einstein on History channel.

T-shirt of the day: Sometimes I wake up grumpy.  Other times I let her sleep.

Monday, April 24, 2017

3 more days!

Despite getting up twice during the night I slept well waking/getting up at 8am.

It’s an overcast day.

Still no wifi.

I called Jose Cruz and told him I haven’t had wifi since Saturday night but I can meet him at Liga de Ajedrez tomorrow at 10:15.

I had Laura call Une and later I was told they should be here tomorrow afternoon at 2pm.  I also asked her to ask them to increase our speed from 5Mbps to 10Mbps so we’ll see.

I watched the first 15 minutes of the Today show and left just as the weather report came on.

There’s a man with a stand selling snacks outside Exito.  If you get there early as he’s just about to open you can see him doing his “warmup” exercises which remind me of the mating dance of the sandhill crane.  Lol.

It took 2 hours and 5 minutes to do all but my Glute exercises.  I told Jose and Oscar a joke as Jeison soon joined the listening group.

Back at the apt I won another game against Shredder at the Patzer level.

About 3pm Teresa left with her mother to look at material for the old couch.  I guess blue doesn’t go well with the new flesh colored material.  I left to go pick up a few things from Exito.  On my way back I saw very dark clouds to the south.  It looks like Sabaneta is going to get poured on.

I played another game against Shredder at the Patzer level and this time I lost.  I played him again and lost again.  I played a 3^rd game and won that one.

Teresa came back at 6:45 and told me that they want too much money (300,000 pesos) to reupholster the couch.  She also informed me that I bought the wrong type of arepas.  Uh-oh.  Well, it’s been a long time since I’ve bought arepas and I didn’t remember what they were called.

I watched the first episode of Genius on National Geographic Channel of Direct TV.

T-shirt of the day: ALCOHOL – because no great story every starts with a salad.

Sunday, April 23, 2017

4 more days!

Still no wifi.

I understand Teresa really doesn’t like the television in the living room with all its wiring.  It sits on a table and on the shelves underneath there is the Direct TV box, the cable box, the Wifi router, my little TV Listener box, and now my SNES box.  Each has at least a power cord leading to the power strip.  I know it’s unsightly but if we can find the proper table we can at least get the cables out of sight.

Jose invited me via email to meet him Tuesday at Liga de Ajedrez.  This time I’ll take my own chess set so we can have lunch at El Viejo y El Pancake.

We lost our wifi signal so that limits the things I can do.  I asked Teresa about Tuesday and she said her mother has a doctor’s appointment but they can do that together.  I did a couple Rosetta Stone lessons and then, for the first time, I started playing some chess games against Shredder.  He pretty easily killed me at his normal grandmaster level so I handicapped him with the strength of Drunk and I beat him easily.  I changed his strength to Moron and won easily again.  I set him to Patzer and won that one easily also.  I tried Tit-for-tat and it gave me a fairly close game that I won in the endgame.

About 1pm Laura went out to Frisby and brought back chicken for lunch.

We left the apt just before 4pm, quickly caught a taxi and arrived at Santafe mall just after 4.  Teresa and Laura went to check out Zara and I went to buy tickets for Fast and Furious 8 3D.  There weren’t any decent regular seats left so I bought 3 preferred seating tickets for 70,500.  I already had 2 sets of 3D glasses so I only had to buy one more for 2,800 pesos.  I made a quick trip to the ATM for a little cash and found the ladies in Zara 20 minutes before showtime.  We had our snacks 10 minutes early (47,000 pesos) so we sat down in their café for a few minutes. 

In our seats we had to wait through 30 minutes of coming attractions (The Wall, Guardians of the Galaxy) and advertisements.  Teresa and I were both bored with the movie but Laura got to see her idol – Jason Statham.  I can’t believe how many cars and trucks they destroyed to make this movie – unless it was movie magic.

There was still no internet when we got back to the apt.

I won a close game against Shredder at Patzer level.

T-shirt of the day: The beatings continue until morale improves.

Saturday, April 22, 2017

5 more days!

I slept much better last night and my cold symptoms are gone.

It started out as an overcast day but soon cleared up.

On occasion Teresa likes to rearrange the furniture which might just be something simple like turning the kitchen table in a different direction.  Sometimes she’ll say “I’ve been thinking” which I usually follow-up with saying “Uh-oh”.

So, this morning she tells me she has a great idea.  She wants to make the utility room Laura’s bedroom and move my computer and its table into Laura’s bedroom along with the television.  I wonder if Laura’s bed would even fit in the utility room.  After questioning her on a number of things like would chairs for 4 fit into Laura’s bedroom in front of the television I finally put the kibosh on the idea when I asked Teresa where the clothes drying rack would go.

The Colombian Peso closed at 2,873 to the US Dollar.

He did call first and the real estate salesman showed up just after 9am.  We walked a few blocks to a building right across the street from the bakery El Pastelito.  It’s a 3 story building and he showed us apartments on both the 2^nd and 3^rd floors.  I don’t know which was older and uglier and they are asking 1,800,000 pesos and 2 million a month for them.  And, just to sweeten the deal, the building is currently about 150’ from Avenida Poblado where you can hear the jackhammers working on the new MetroPlus. 

Afterwards I asked Teresa if she wanted to have a coffee with me across the street.  She said she’d rather get her nails done so I gave her 50mil, about twice as much as she would need.  I went inside the bakery and ordered a café con leche.  Outside I was beginning to wonder if the waitress forgot about me.  I figured I’d give her 15 minutes before leaving but she brought my coffee after a 10 minute wait.  Sitting outside I could see the real estate signs on the windows of the apartments for rent – 10 on one and 7 on the other.  They don’t have MLS (multiple listing service) here so they have to get a sign from each real estate agency if they want them to know it’s for rent.

Back at the apt Teresa returned 5 minutes after me and informed me she has a 4pm nail appointment.

We need some new living room furniture and Teresa showed me a Home Center flyer with a large corner sofa for about 1,500,000 but first I think she wants to try the local antique stores.

In preparation for next month’s tournament from May 17-21 I signed up for 3 months of Chess Magnet School.  I tested out of the basics and I started out with the title of Baron.  After a few exercises I was soon promoted to Count.

We left the apt and took a taxi to an antique store we had visited before.  Teresa even called them first to make sure they were open.  What they didn’t tell her is that they had moved.  When we got out of the taxi and saw it was now someone’s house she called them again.  Luckily they were only a block away because the taxi had already left. 

They had a beautifully colored couch (a couch of many colors?) and matching chair but they were too expensive.  The saleslady pointed us down the block and we tried another shop.  An attractive woman in her 30s dressed … well, let’s just say her clothes were missing material in some strategic places … came to the door with a plastic glove on one hand like she’d been working on something.  Unfortunately, we were told she doesn’t have what we were looking for. 

We tried another shop and found in the same room, 2 nicely decorated Victorian chairs, a beautiful (low, like Japanese style?) coffee table and a sectional sofa.  Teresa got a price of about 1,500,000 for the chairs and coffee table.  Then she asked me how I liked the sofa and we ended up buying the coffee table and sectional sofa for 1,900,000.  I told Teresa we won’t be able to afford to buy anything else expensive this month as this purchase will take all my savings and a little extra from this month’s budget. 

Unfortunately, the lady informed us she can’t take my debit card.  She did tell me where we could find an ATM.  Unfortunately, I have a daily withdrawal limit and that wouldn’t work either.  I understood they would deliver it sometime in the future and we would pay the driver when it arrives.  When we got outside Teresa said she was hungry so we stopped at a little restaurant across the street where she had an order of trout for 20,000 pesos.  I wasn’t hungry so I just ate the 20 or so tomato halves from her salad.

Back outside we walked down to a busier street where we quickly caught a taxi back to the apt.  After I let Teresa in I headed to the ATM to start accumulating the cash I’m going to need.  I asked the ATM for a large amount of cash – the most I’ve ever requested – and the machine informed me in English “I can’t do that right now”.  I guess that’s its way of saying they don’t have that much cash as it did give me a lesser amount when I requested it.

I stopped in Exito where I picked up a head of lettuce, some tomatoes, and a bag of granola for 10,247 pesos.

Later Teresa told me she was anxious to get the sofa and table and luckily I asked her which day is it supposed to be delivered and she said “today at 6pm”.  I told her I don’t have enough cash because there’s a limit to how much I can withdraw each day.  We avoided a minor catastrophe by borrowing 600,000 pesos from Laura’s college savings.

The delivery men arrived at 7pm and had everything in place by 7:20.

I received an email from Trip Advisor that they had published my 123 Wok review.  I tried to change it but they don’t let you submit another review for the same place for a month.

T-shirt of the day: Well, another day has passed and I didn’t use ALGEBRA once. 

Friday, April 21, 2017

6 more days!

Well, for some reason I slept poorly last night.  I finally got up at 7:30.  I also have the early symptoms of another cold and I was thinking maybe I should skip the gym today.  I took an Excedrin Migraine, lay down for 20 minutes and got up just in time for the Today show.  I was feeling much better (no more eye pain, no more tiredness) so I left for the gym at 9:35.  I didn’t see anyone playing chess in the park.

Today I did 18 exercises; the pull down bar always seems to be busy and it is the same as another exercise I do so I think I’m just going to remove it from my list.  I finished at 12:05, my only excuse for taking 2 ½ hours is I added an additional 20# to 1 machine, 10# to 6 machines, and 5# to another, and I needed more recuperation time.

Teresa came back at 12:45 and made me lunch.  Jose showed up at 2pm and MT at 2:15.  We stopped at a copy store and had a copy made of both sides of her Social Security card, walked over to Bancolombia, took a number and walked upstairs where our number was ready to be served.  Right away we found out that they couldn’t help us because MT didn’t have her Cedula with her.  Jose and I returned to my apt while she returned to hers for her Cedula.  When she returned we stopped again at the copy store and had a copy made of both sides of her Cedula.  Back at the bank there was now a line and we had to wait 15 minutes.  The same lady informed us that she only works with quick 5 minute things so she sent us across the aisle to another lady.  45 minutes later they had printed out and completed the required forms.  She put them into an inter-house envelope like we used to use back in the sixties.  I understand it gets sent to the US embassy and her SS should be deposited within 4-6 months.  (That kind of sounds like what I already went through with the embassy only without the forms.)  She gave me a one-page letter with an email address and phone numbers for the embassy.  I’m to call or email them and give them MT’s address and phone numbers.

Back at the apt Jose and I played 4 games of chess, each winning 2.

Among new US movie releases there isn’t anything I want to see.  Locally, The Fate of the Furious is playing at Mayorca at 2:30pm and 5:20 in 3D, Oviedo at 1:30pm, 2:45pm, and 4:45pm in 3D, and Santafe at 1:40pm and 4:50pm in 3D.  Maybe Laura will want to see it on Sunday because Jason Statham is in it.

I mentioned to Teresa that today is supposed to be the Day Without Cars but I still see cars on the street.  She explained that exempted from the ban are buses, taxis, motorcycles and cars that are filled with people.

Teresa informed me that someone from the agency is coming tomorrow morning between 9 and 9:30 to show us a couple apartments/houses.

I received an email from Trip Advisor that my review for Sr. Wok has been published.  The only problem is I submitted it under the name Mr. Wok and they posted it to some restaurant called 123 Wok.  I tried to contact them but they have one of those automated Q&A sites and it’s difficult if not impossible to reach an actual person.

T-shirt of the day: Common sense is so rare these days it should be classified as a super power.

Donald Trump's Policy Reversals - The New York Times

For Trump, a Steep Learning Curve Leads to Policy Reversals

4/13/17

The New York Times

By PETER BAKER55

© Doug Mills/The New York Times President Trump in the Oval Office.   As the first president in American history never to have served in government or the military, he has faced an especially steep learning curve.

WASHINGTON — For President Trump, the road to changing his mind on China included a discussion with corporate executives in the State Dining Room of the White House in February. When the conversation turned to China’s currency, the executives had a simple message for the president: You’re wrong.

Mr. Trump had long insisted that China was devaluing its currency and should be punished, but the executives pushed back and told him Beijing had actually stopped. And while Mr. Trump at first resisted — as late as this month calling the Chinese “world champions” of currency manipulation — after many talks like the one in February he reversed himself, declaring this week that “they’re not currency manipulators” after all.

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For any new occupant of the White House, the early months are like a graduate seminar in policy crammed into every half-hour meeting. What made sense on the campaign trail may have little bearing on reality in the Oval Office, and the education of a president can be rocky even for former governors or senators. For Mr. Trump, the first president in American history never to have served in government or the military, the learning curve is especially steep.

The past week has made that abundantly clear. He discovered that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia may not be the “best friend” he imagined and that staying out of the civil war in Syria was harder than he assumed. He acknowledged that 10 minutes of listening to China’s president made him realize he did not fully understand the complexity of North Korea. He dropped his opposition to the Export-Import Bank after learning more about it. And he said he no longer thought NATO was “obsolete.”

Just weeks ago, in the midst of failed efforts to scrap President Barack Obama’s health care program, he acknowledged that the issue was more involved than the repeal-and-replace mantra of a campaign rally. “Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated,” he said with amazement. Nobody except anyone who had spent any time in Washington policy making. But for Mr. Trump, never much of a policy wonk, it was an eye opener.

“As he governs, he is realizing that the campaign talk doesn’t fit neatly into governing and he needs a different approach, one that gets results,” said Christopher Ruddy, the chief executive of Newsmax Media and a friend of the president’s. “So he will discard things and people that don’t work out, and those that do work, he will magnify. That’s how he became successful in business and entertainment.”

One person’s education, of course, may be another’s betrayal. To some of his supporters, the pivots suggest that Mr. Trump the outsider may have been captured by Wall Street veterans in his White House, while Stephen K. Bannon, his chief strategist, is sidelined.

It got to the point that Alex Jones, the conspiracy theorist radio show host, focused his Thursday program on defending the president against his own base. “Is Trump selling us out?” Mr. Jones asked. “And the answer is no. In fact, Trump is attempting to co-opt the establishment.”

To be sure, Mr. Trump remains a historically unpredictable president, given to impulse, still tilting at the Washington establishment and supporting ideological measures popular with his conservative base, including legislation he signed on Thursday targeting Planned Parenthood. Even as establishment figures seek to influence him, he has not given up on his most polarizing priorities, and few can forecast where he will take his presidency. Mr. Trump is still Mr. Trump, and he believes he got to the White House by following instinct.

But he arrived at the White House surrounded by advisers who, like him, were neophytes to governance. His White House chief of staff, chief strategist, senior adviser, counselor and national economics adviser have no prior government experience of consequence. Nor do his secretaries of state, Treasury, commerce, housing or education.

At first, Mr. Trump dismissed the importance of receiving his intelligence briefing every day, arguing that he did not learn much. He figured it would be easy to ban visitors from several predominantly Muslim countries and build a border wall while forcing Mexico to pay for it. He had never heard of the congressional procedures that forced him to push for health care changes before overhauling the tax code.

But as seasoned hands got access to him, he retreated from some of his provocative promises. He put on hold his vow to move the American Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem after King Abdullah II of Jordan rushed to Washington to warn him of a violent backlash among Arabs. He abandoned his intention to bring back torture in terrorism interrogations after Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told him it was ineffective.

He has not appointed a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton, ripped up or renegotiated the nuclear agreement with Iran, reversed Mr. Obama’s Cuba policy or terminated his predecessor’s program permitting younger unauthorized immigrants to stay.

So much of this is new to Mr. Trump that only after he publicly accused Mr. Obama of having wiretapped his telephones last year did he ask aides how the system of obtaining eavesdropping warrants from a special foreign intelligence court worked.

The Export-Import Bank, which helps finance purchases of American exports, is a telling example. During the campaign, Mr. Trump sided with conservatives who wanted to eliminate it because the government should not finance large corporations and effectively pick winners and losers in a free-market economy. But on Wednesday, Mr. Trump embraced the bank.

“I was very much opposed to Ex-Im Bank because I said what do we need that for IBM and General Electric,” he told The Wall Street Journal. “It turns out that, first of all, lots of small companies will really be helped, the vendor companies. But also maybe more importantly, other countries give” such aid, and so “we lose a tremendous amount of business.”

Fred P. Hochberg, who just stepped down as chairman of the bank, said he was heartened by Mr. Trump’s reversal, noting that Ronald Reagan and Mr. Obama had also opposed the bank only to rethink their positions.

“I’ve probably never met a chief executive who didn’t have a different perspective when they occupy that chair than when they’re on the outside, whether you’re a mayor or you’re running a company,” Mr. Hochberg said. “And we ought to applaud people when they learn and they change their minds.”

In the same Journal interview, Mr. Trump described his learning process on North Korea, which is developing nuclear-capable ballistic missiles. When he invited President Xi Jinping of China to his Mar-a-Lago estate, Mr. Trump said he believed Beijing could simply pressure North Korea to stop its activities. Then, he said, Mr. Xi reviewed the history of China and Korea for him.

“After listening for 10 minutes, I realized that it’s not so easy,” Mr. Trump said. “You know, I felt pretty strongly that they had a tremendous power over” North Korea, he added. “But it’s not what you would think.”

Mr. Trump sometimes cloaks his evolving positions by declaring victory before retreating. For instance, he had criticized NATO for not fighting terrorism and leaving the financial burden to the United States. As he met with NATO’s secretary general on Wednesday, Mr. Trump asserted that the alliance had changed.

“You look at the president’s position, where he wanted to see NATO, in particular, evolve to, and it’s moving exactly in the direction that he said,” Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, said on Thursday.

But the alliance has hardly changed in three months. Just three more members out of 28 have committed to raise military spending to target levels by next year, and the only shift in NATO’s approach to terrorism was to create a new intelligence office before Mr. Trump’s inauguration.

Karen Hughes, who was White House counselor to President George W. Bush, said no president can be fully informed about all the issues that will confront him.

“Obviously, most presidents aren’t nuclear scientists,” she said. “What is important is that the White House provide a disciplined process for the experts to present their views, which are often differing. The president’s role as the chief executive and decision maker is to listen to, question and probe the expert recommendations, then apply informed judgment to the decision.”